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socio-technical design

From worrying if Twitter really is a useful business tool, to getting a pain in your neck from using your laptop in bed, we are all affected by socio-technical systems.

I recently contributed to the Handbook of Research on Socio-Technical Design and Social Networking Systems, a book focusing on how we combine our knowledge of technology and society to improve both technical performance and personal wellbeing.

There are no easy answers to how you design socio-technical systems, and this book presents an invaluable and unique overview of a vast and confusing field. But one reason why I think it is particularly difficult nowadays is that social relationships are so much more complex than they appear on the surface. Arguably all behaviour is social, as we observe ourselves and form opinions about how others see us.